More Calls For Alvarez, McCarthy To Resign Over Laquan McDonald Case
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Pressure continued to mount Monday for Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy to step down over their handling of the Laquan McDonald case.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said she thinks the way Alvarez has run her office has been "disgraceful," claiming she's had to drag the county's top prosecutor "kicking and screaming" in attempts to reform the criminal justice system.
"I've had no confidence in her leadership for a very long time," Preckwinkle said Monday morning.
She also said McCarthy should lose his job.
"I've talked to the mayor and told him he ought to ask for the resignation of Superintendent McCarthy as well," she said, shortly after Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia and members of the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus called for Alvarez to resign.
They said it should not have taken more than a year for Alvarez to file murder charges against Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is seen on police dashboard video shooting McDonald 16 times on Oct. 20, 2014.
Garcia and four Latino aldermen – Susan Garza (10th), Carlos Ramirez Rosa (35th), Gilbert Villegas (36th) and Ricardo Munoz (22nd) – said Alvarez should step down immediately for waiting so long to file charges, and doing so only after a Cook County judge had ordered the city to release the video of the shooting.
Garcia called Alvarez's handling of the case "a travesty of justice," and accused her of taking part in "a concerted effort at concealment of the details of the vicious nature of this crime."
"It's clear to me that there's been a cover-up; that perhaps there was thinking that somehow this thing would go away, and the video would never see the light of day," he said.
Munoz said there is no valid reason it took more than a year for prosecutors to file charges in the case.
"What kind of investigation takes that long when you have video proof? The miscarriage of justice here is visible to the naked eye," he said.
Preckwinkle said she agreed with Garcia and the aldermen.
"She fought to … suppress the evidence, to suppress the videotape, and only made the charge against the officer on the day in which the videotape was to be released. I find that very troubling," she said.
Alvarez has issued a statement saying she does not apologize for conducting a meticulous and thorough investigation to build what she said is the strongest possible murder case against Van Dyke.
"I will not be bullied by politicians who do not have a full understanding of the facts of this investigation," she said.
Preckwinkle also said McCarthy should resign over the McDonald case, accusing police of misleading the public about the circumstances of the shooting by claiming the teen lunged at officers with a knife in the immediate wake of the shooting. The video of the shooting does not show McDonald lunging at police before he was shot.
"Either they did not have the video cam recording in their possession, and therefore made the statement without full knowledge of the facts; or they had the facts, and they deliberately distorted the facts to make it look like the shooting was justified. I think that's disgraceful," Preckwinkle said.
Garcia, however, stopped short of demanding McCarthy's resignation.
"It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Superintendent McCarthy," he said. "He's lost my confidence a long, long time ago."
However, Garcia said he was backing Hispanic aldermen's plan to hold City Council hearings on the McDonald case.
Ramirez-Rosa said the aldermen planned to call for public hearings to question the Police Department and the city's Law Department about the McDonald case.
"It appears that there was a cover-up, so we need to know what was occurring at the top levels of government, so we can really dig deep, and figure out the reforms and the fixes that we now need moving forward," he said.
The City Council's Black Caucus previously demanded McCarthy resign or be fired over his handling of the case.
McCarthy repeatedly has said he has no plans to step down.